Maybe, Arsenal FC didn't feel the effects of Özil's comment straightaway.
Ozil
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I honestly think he's just done, like Alexis. When he's not contributing with the odd moment of brilliance, he's a liability on the pitch. This sounds like a classic case of player looking better the less he plays.
I was looking for the white text, but there wasn't any.
No idea tbh.
If Ozil wanted to play, he could play. He wants to make the money he's on right now then play. I am not saying his wrong to want that nor is he wrong in any fashion on his China criticisms. However, he isn't completely innocent in this whatsoever.
That midfield diamond would get ripped a new arsehole.
And at the same time Arteta has come out and said that he has given Ozil a fair go and he has been dropped for only footballing reasons. So who's word are we supposed to believe, if either of them at all?
Just to reiterate my earlier post, I don't think either of you are wrong.. just that there are likely to be a number of factors (some of which we don't know) at play here.
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What a life, getting to passive aggressively shitpost at your employers all through the season and being paid £200k a week for it. Fair play to him.
I bet Arsenal wish he would just shut up.
I bet Arsenal wish he would just shut up.
Everyone else agreed to it in the end bar Ozil. Especially after Arteta personally pushed for the whole squad to take a pay cut.
The issue is less about the pay cut, but about Ozil actively undermining the authority of Arteta. A manager cannot last if a player is allowed to undermine their authority. It's partly why Emery failed with Arsenal.
Then arteta is a dick if he is telling a player to do this and not answering the questions
Can't say I really followed the whole topic but that seems a bit odd to me. I mean, in the end it's the player's choice to accept pay cuts and not Arteta's. One's authority can only suffer if you told someone to do a specific thing and the other one refused. And if Arteta demanded pay cuts from his players, then that's a wrong thing, because that decision should be up to them. He can ask them non-bindingly to do it but he if he expects them to do it to a degree at which his authority suffers if they don't, he overstrained his competences.
That doesn't mean that one shouldn't criticize Özil. I don't have ebough background information to judge but I can see why Arsenal officials might be disappointed with him. But that authority thing is a two edged sword.
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Actively undermining the manager by refusing to have his pay cut without the reason for the cut being adequately explained ?
The problem is Arsenal had issues with player authority for a few years now. Wenger always gave his players a lot of power and freedom. Emery was a disaster because the players walked all over him.
In order for Arsenal to rebuild, you need to rebuild the authority of the manager one way or another. Giving in to Ozil will hamper the overall squad harmony.
I get he has alot of fans and followers. And he's a superstar in social media. I'm not denying that. I'm just not buying that China actually cares enough about his outburst to ask for his freezing out or if they had the power to get arsenal to do it. I read, understand, speak chinese. I follow Weibo, the Chinese Twitter and their media. Ozil's thing barely make any headlines or ripple back then.
Then you compare with the Houstons Rockets GM, Daryl Morey's case about the HK riots, he has I assume, much less social media followers than the Turkish superstar. But China's government actually gave a crap and put alot of attention to it. Not only did it made the national news, trend on Weibo for many days, the chinese Twitter, chinese national newspaper even wrote a full page editorial about it. Houston Rockets and NBA are big and well known there due to the days of Yao ming when he was with the Rockets, so they have a lot of followers along with other teams in China. China wanted him to retract his statement, and NBA to take action and later even banned the NBA games telecast for awhile. But that didn't make Houston rockets or NBA agree to their demands. I doubt arsenal would even care. Now maybe if it was Messi, Ronaldo then maybe it will be a different reaction.
Moreover, if china actually cared, its so simple to call out the Turkish superstar for his hypocrisy. Its so simple for them to call out his fake social justice warrior position with his close relationship to erdogan. His disregard of issues closer to home like the plight of the Kurdish, the armenia situation. Or even Muslims beings in kashmir. Not too mention, they probably got enough trouble trying to refute the almost daily anti China attacks from the twin clowns of Trump and Pompeo to even care about Ozil.
Secondly, arsenal played him like ten times(?) after his anti China statement. Even if arsenal needed time to think about it, maybe ban him after 3-4 times he played. But ten times? Sounds suspect. Add to the fact it seems he was frozen right after allegedly refusing the paycut. It seems financial reason is the main reason along with secondary reason of his attitude and work rate. Ozil trying to make it like it's political and China conspiracy behind it is looking more and more like just his face saving move to blame others but himself.
I actually didn't have opinion in this matter, just stating the possibility why he still made 11 appearances after China comment.
Now to think about it, in my opinion I would put the footballing reason as the last thing possible. He is still good at football, at worst he still can be used as back up/ rotation player. Arsenal still pay he wage after all.
The fuss he made about wage cut probably the reason of his squad exclusion.
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He didn't make any sort of fuss.
He was one of the Arsenal players that privately refused to take a cut until some details (eg where the saved money would go) and the club leaked only that he refused.
Arsenal spent millions on new signings and giving other players wage increases. Their billionaire owner asking for wage cuts is insane.
Whats the mystery here, player at the end of his contract which was offered to him when his level was higher and the club trying to get rid of him. Same thing happened with Rooney, Sanchez, Bale, Mkhitaryan. If anyone its his useless agent that ought to be blamed, cause Bale, Mkhi, Sanchez were able to find a way out of their situations.
I see. Still don't think that's a good way of approaching this. You don't establish authority by demanding things you have no right to demand because then this is what happens. And if Arteta demanded this so strictly that it backfires if a player doesn't give in, that's just not good. I think consequence and continuity in your decisions and management is what authority is all about but for that you need to know when actually do have the last word. Not defending Özil or anything, as I said I don't know enough about the whole story, but as you put it that sounded unprofessional from Arsenal's part.
He seems like the type of player who isn't a yes man or follow the club blindly on what they ask him to do - and now he's being punished for it.
it's a shame to see him waste his career away as he was a fantastic footballer. I often wonder how good he could have been under Fergie when we scouted him initially.
it's a shame to see him waste his career away as he was a fantastic footballer. I often wonder how good he could have been under Fergie when we scouted him initially.
Not wasted his career at all. This WC winner is on the cusp of his mid 30s. No longer competitive at elite level, that's all. The underwhelming and controversial manner of his departure is all that's different with comparable players. He's a sour puss who sulked his way out of the national team so Arsenal fans shouldn't expect special treatment.
What's going on in Nigeria is horrendous but this reeks of hypocrisy from Arsenal. They're not involved in "politics" unless it affects them financially whereas in truth both are humanitarian crises. Arsenal really have shown themselves up to be a trash club.
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This is not true as per the DFB. The General Secretary has already admitted they made mistakes in handling the Ozil case.
He is one of those players who stand up for what he thinks is right. That's his right to say things.
As for his football he is still good enough to be in the squad for Arsenal. There are games which he can influence.
In my opinion there is more to this. He doesn't seem like a player who is going to just sit at his home and take away his salary.
Arsenal doesn't have to wait too long to get rid of him. I think they can try to loan him off or pay him off in January. Or make him a free agent and he is gone.
Doesn't mean he's always right. Plus he had few complaints against the DFB when he was in his prime and being picked to play in the WC final. Ozil was brave and correct on the Uighur issue. But on the pitch his languid brand isn't cutting it at the moment.
Maybe. But as a rule, it's better not to shit on any positive action/message.
Dumb is Özil not learning from his mistakes. The picture with Erdogan cost him his international career.
Of course it's Özil right to make such political statements.
On the other hand he should also be aware of and accept the consequences that will follow by publicly courting and supporting an autocratic leader.
Indeed the DFB isn't free from guilt in handling this PR disaster. Özil never should have been part of the national team in Russia 2018 after refusing to clearly distancing himself from Erdogan.
Football and sports in general should be free from politics. Being a footballer means more than just kicking a ball around the players are expected to represent the club as an entity and protect its interests in the same way any highly paid employee of a company would be expected to. I don’t know how much truth there is over the China issue and I’m not sure if it’s relevant to his current status. Ozil wasn’t a starter under Emery so it’s not like Arteta has just dropped him from nowhere he’s been shit for about 2 years now and he’s the highest paid player at the club.
My guess is they tried to get him to move but he wanted to be paid in full so the club is doing what fans usually say they should : let him rot in the reserves. Fair enough he gets his money and the club shows what it’s willing to do to deal with these situations.
My guess is they tried to get him to move but he wanted to be paid in full so the club is doing what fans usually say they should : let him rot in the reserves. Fair enough he gets his money and the club shows what it’s willing to do to deal with these situations.
Ehm.... what?
Özil is cooked. Completely done on that level.
Not only is he useless in the modern game, since he refuses to press, he and his entourage are also a toxic gang.
They're huge Erdogan supporters and Özil, who isn't actually the sharpest knife in the drawer (and that's euphemism), has also made several really politically controversial remarks in the last few years.
I wouldn't want him here, if he offered to play for free.
This is ridiculous. He has every right to be seen with Erdogan on an official visit. How many people have been seen with Tony Blair? The man who illegally invaded Iraq along with Bush and caused the death of millions of people and the rise of ISIS. Now if he was dropped from the National team due to his playing that is a different issue.
Erdogan himself was a footballer in his younger days.
Erdogan could be a dictator and there are many dictators in this world and meeting one should not be a prelude to be suspended from the national team. Drop him by all means if it is for footballing reasons but not for his religion or the colour of his skin or his ethnic background.
The Erasure of Mesut Ozil
Interesting NYT article which hypothesizes that everything started to go wrong for Ozil starting with his denunciation of China. A lot of confusing questions in this saga like the lack of offers for Ozil, Arsenal not adding him to the squad despite paying him the highest wages, etc might be answered by the overarching influence of CCP on Arsenal (and the PL more broadly). Ozil has only made it easier for Arsenal to keep him out cold with his Gunnersaurus and Wage cut antics. Yet looking at how things have turned out for him since he made that tweet, this will unfortunately only deter other star players coming out and pointing out the elephant in the room.
Interesting NYT article which hypothesizes that everything started to go wrong for Ozil starting with his denunciation of China. A lot of confusing questions in this saga like the lack of offers for Ozil, Arsenal not adding him to the squad despite paying him the highest wages, etc might be answered by the overarching influence of CCP on Arsenal (and the PL more broadly). Ozil has only made it easier for Arsenal to keep him out cold with his Gunnersaurus and Wage cut antics. Yet looking at how things have turned out for him since he made that tweet, this will unfortunately only deter other star players coming out and pointing out the elephant in the room.
Ozil does not help himself by playing terribly. I am sure that there are many clubs who would take him for a lesser wage.
Maybe he should go to China and play there?
Maybe he should go to China and play there?
I love the distraction he’ll be providing every Arsenal game till January at least. Arsenal fans crying for him but forget all those games he walked around the pitch or showed petulance throwing his gloves strolling off when losing.
He is providing free meals for a week to 1400 kids in north London according to the newspapers in UK.
I find it very curious that he didn't remain in management after that. What it tells me is, the way things ended there took away his desire to manage. At least, to a certain point. I think he'll return one day, but maybe never in a long term role.
Yes, he might not go back into club management (most certainly not in England aside from Arsenal). He recently did an interview where he said he is more interested in working outside Europe and bridging the gap between the RoW and Europe.
The bolded is simply not the truth so stop bringing racism into the equation.
Even in the world of football journalism and punditry, where you see all kinds of idiotic writings, this one stands out. I am hard-pressed to remember when I last read such forced, imagined, detached from reality pile of bullshit. Why is NYT wiriting about association football? They don't have any clue about it. And how do these people have jobs commenting on football? They should be making appointments at a psychoterapist's office, trying to address their chronic paranoia.
Ozil is where he is because of Ozil, and nobody else. If anything his support for Erdogan has hurt him more than anything he said about China. But if he played well, none of that would ever matter.